Brendan Shanahan suspends Bruins’ Marchand for 5 games

Deserved punishment after a dirty hit

Brendan Shanahan of the department of player safety announced his decision to suspend Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins for five games today, after determining that the hit on Vancouver Canucks‘ Sami Salo in Saturday’s heated game was dangerous and intentional.

Salo sustained a concussion at the Stanley Cup final re-match when Marchand delivered a below-the-knees hit that flipped Salo over and onto the ice head first. Marchand was then taken off the ice for violating Rule 44, receiving a five minute penalty for game misconduct and clipping:

Enjoy the time off Brad. :)

“Clipping is the act of throwing the body from any direction across of below the knees of an opponent.

A player may not deliver a check in a clipping manner, nor lower his body to deliver a check on or below an opponent’s knees.”

A video explanation released by Shanahan outlines that this play was not considered instinctive or reactionary in defense, and that Marchand had the decision to deliver a shoulder-to-shoulder hit and chose not to.

This hit has created quite an uproar between coaches Alain Vigneault and Claude Julien, both defending their own players in the incident as the victim and blaming the other team for being dirty.

Rightfully in this case, Marchand was punished for his blatant attempt to injure Salo.